AGA has been working with CMS and the CDC to help drive the national priority for Hepatis C virus (HCV) testing, treatment and eradication.
Updates to QPP measure 400
In July 2022, CMS contacted AGA to modify measure 400 – to update the coverage for one-time screening for hepatitis C virus to include a referral for treatment for patients with positive antibodies. CMS also advised that confirmation of eradication is a priority and we have started working with the CDC to modify AGA’s sustained virological response (SVR) measure for future consideration in the Quality Payment Program (QPP).
The modifications to measure 400 have been drafted and given the substantial changes to the measure specification, the measure needs to be retested and submitted to the National Quality Forum for consideration by the Measures Application Partnership (MAP). The CMS contractor for this project, Mathematica, will be leading this testing initiative and selected test sites will qualify for up to $2,000 to participate.
Apply to be a test site
Test site requirements
Additionally, there will be a second phase of testing to use de-identified patient level data to assess the measure’s validity and reliability, which will be contracted separately. Our hope is that testing sites recruited for the first phase of testing will stay on through the second phase.
Participants in the second phase of testing are expected to have at least 2 years of patient data available containing data elements needed to calculate the measure. Ideally, each of the participating clinicians at the prospective testing sites would see at least 40 confirmed HCV positive cases annually.
